5 Trillion Digits Closer To Random: A New Record For Pi
Posted by Michael_Byrne on Friday, Aug 06, 2010
A couple of brains in Japan are claiming a new record on the longest calculation of Pi, that almost mystical and undefinable number that gives the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its radius. (In other words, 3.141592653589793238, and the numbers just keep going in absolutely no predictable pattern. Forever.) It took the pair 90 days to calculate, about 8.32 terabytes of uncompressed computer memory, and they did it on a “desktop” computer. Nuts.
“After Fabrice Bellard’s announcement of 2.7 trillion digits on a relatively cheap’ desktop, it was pretty clear that the limit of personal computing was a lot higher,” Yee explains on the project website. “Shigeru Kondo and I wanted to see how much better we could do if we used some more powerful hardware. Both of us are hardware fanatics. And both of us (especially Shigeru Kondo) had some very powerful machines at our disposal. So with that, we decided to see how far we could push the limits of personal computing using personally owned hardware.”
It’s fair enough to ask well, what’s the point? While other mathematicians are hunting through the Pi digits for something that might actually mean something—a descriptive formula, perhaps—this is just a distance race. Yee’s answer: “Because it’s Pi… and because we can!”
Here’s their rig:
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Michael covers physics, climate science, the future of music, and assorted things fallen through cracks at Motherboard. A native of Colorado, Michigan, and Oregon, he currently resides in Baltimore...
